The Gospel is for Sinners

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pastors are rotten people. There's no two ways about it. You might think that your pastor, or the pastors you have admired in the past, are good people. You might think that they are holy men, honest and good and diligent servants of the Lord. But you would be wrong. Pastors are lousy people. Poor, miserable, sinners – the whole lot of them.

On the outside, it seems like pastors are good people. But on the inside they can be as filthy as a sealed tomb. Pastors are blasphemers, taking the Word of God and using it to their own advantage, twisting it to say what they want. They are persecutors, using their influence and control to achieve their own desires, rather than the will of the Lord. The are ignorant, whether it be of church history or the Scriptures, or of the Lutheran Confessions, or whether they are ignorant and uncaring regarding the customs of the parish.

Have you ever argued with a pastor? They make insolent opponents, doing their best to win their case, using whatever rhetorical tricks they might possess. They might bully you selfishly, using the Bible and the Confessions as a club to beat you into doing their will.

The shepherds of the people of God have a long history of abusing their office, of doing despicable and wicked things in the name of the Lord. God likens them to shepherds who spend their time eating the sheep instead of tending and nurturing those in their care. “I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep.” God says.

The Lord Himself will come, and will rescue His sheep from the evil shepherds. He will deliver His Church from wicked pastors and false and evil teachers who would devour the faithful and distort the proclamation of the truth by their own sins. He will lead and guide His sheep, sending them the Good Shepherd who will lead His sheep into good pasture, making them lie down in pleasant places.

Thus says the Lord, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.”

But, lest you get any ideas, sheep are not exactly the most attractive creatures, either. Sheep wander away from home, and cannot find their way back. They cannot keep themselves out of trouble, but need constant attention and supervision. They are always enthralled by what is on the other side of the fence. And so they make themselves easy prey for the wolf.

The people of God have a long history of such action. You rebel against the shepherds the Lord sends to you, even the men you yourselves have called to be your pastors. You wander away from the sheepfold, looking for something other than the gifts of God purely preached and administered. You chase after the idols of popularity and numerical growth and the latest trendy thing. You listen to false teachers who spew deceit and despair into the wind. You look for whatever excuse you can to turn away from the shepherd and follow that new “sheep” who just entered the sheepfold, even when he leads you off into a new direction.

The false and wicked shepherds are not worthy of your attention, but that gives no excuse to wander away from the preaching of the truth and the company of the saints to soothe your itching ears.

Pastors are poor, miserable sinners, the whole lot of them. There has never been a man in this pulpit who was not one. They do and say and think despicable things.

But the sheep are not so lovely and cute either. They are also poor, miserable sinners. They also have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They also live as if God did not matter.

Thanks be to God, therefore, that the Gospel is only for sinners! The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. If you are not lost, you do not need to be sought. If you are not a sinner, you do not need a savior. If you are not broken, you do not need to be healed.

But “this man receives sinners and eats with them!” This Jesus of Nazareth sits down at table with poor, miserable sinners and He feeds them. He raises you up from the bottom of the heap and seats you at the right hand of the King. He feeds you with the Bread of Heaven and gives you to drink from the cup of blessing, the wine of immortality. This same Jesus is the one who spoke to the prophet Ezekiel, saying, “Behold I, I myself will search for My sheep and will seek them out.” He has searched for you, and has sought you out, for you are His sheep.

You are the people for whom the Shepherd has given His life. You are those whose blemishes and spots and stains are washed away with His precious blood. You are those who live because you are filled with His life. You are those who are led beside still waters, given to eat in green pastures, and lie down and sleep in peace under the watchful care of the Good Shepherd.

This same Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the Paschal Victim who has died upon the cross to take away the covering of death that enshrouded you. He is the one who was sacrificed for the sins of the people. Because He has died and now is raised to life immortal, you too have been buried with Him into death, in order that you might live with him in life everlasting. Because the Good Shepherd reigns from the right hand of the throne of God, His sheep will never fear the terrors of the evil one, who has been defeated.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the Lord of the Church. And the Lord of the Church, in His infinite grace and wisdom, has seen fit to appoint sinners to His service. He chooses men – ordinary, sinful, weak men – to fulfill His charge and to deliver His gifts to His people. As St. Paul says, “I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”

It is not that pastors are holy men in and of themselves. They are not. But these are men whom God has chosen to be His undershepherds, the stewards of His mysteries and the dispensers of His grace. By the hands and mouths of sinners, God is merciful to give the forgiveness of sins to sinners. The men who occupy the Office of the Holy Ministry are just as much needful of the grace of God as those to whom they minister. That is why your pastor receives the Holy Supper first – that he might deliver to you what he also has received from the Lord, not as one holy in himself, but as one made holy by the Blood of the Lamb.

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal,invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.